44-year-old Colts quarterback Philip Rivers<\/a> winless in three games since he returned to the league following a five-year retirement. <\/p>\nIndy (8-8) has lost six straight and seven of eight to become the sixth team since 1970 \u2014 and the first since the 1995 Oakland Raiders \u2014 to miss the postseason after starting 8-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were talking in there and I think the start, the hot start, is what probably makes this whole thing hurt even more,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cIf it had been one of those kinds of back-and-forth years the whole year \u2014 you look up and you find a way to win eight, nine games and you go, \u2018Shoot, just kind of a grinding kind of year.\u2019 But the fact they were at eight (wins) so soon and it\u2019s just been a tough last six-game stretch or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers went 17 of 30 for 147 yards with one TD and one interception. His pick set up Jacksonville\u2019s go-ahead score.<\/p>\n
The fourth-oldest quarterback to start an NFL game relied on his wisdom to put Jacksonville in an early 10-0 hole. A long opening kickoff return by Ashton Dulin set up a field goal, and the Colts converted a Jags turnover into a 3-yard TD run from Jonathan Taylor.<\/p>\n
Lawrence answered with a 4-yard TD run and again in the third quarter with a nifty 6-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter to make it 14-10.<\/p>\n
Dulin\u2019s second long return, a 56-yarder, set up Rivers\u2019 5-yard TD pass to Mo Alie-Cox that put Indy up 17-14 with 5:58 left in the third.<\/p>\n
Then Little tied the score with a 34-yard field goal, broke the tie with his 42-yarder and extended the margin with a late 53-yarder before the Jags sealed it by intercepting Riley Leonard\u2019s final heave into the end zone.<\/p>\n
More celebrations could be coming soon for the Jags.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t addressed making the playoffs as a team,\u201d Coen said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t talked about goals, about the division, the conference, the Super Bowl, none of that. We\u2019re focused on being 1-0 each week and keeping the mindset as singular as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stat pack<\/p>\n
Jaguars: Etienne rushed 17 times for 76 yards to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the third time in his four seasons. … Parker Washington caught eight passes for 115 yards.<\/p>\n
Colts: Taylor tied his single-season franchise records for TD runs (18) and total TDs (19), matching his totals from 2021. … The Colts lost their final three home games after winning their first six, including a game in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Injury report<\/p>\n
Indy receiver Michael Pittman Jr. left briefly in the first quarter with a calf injury, and two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner did not return after aggravating the calf injury that kept him out the previous three weeks.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Jaguars: Can win the division title with a victory over visiting Tennessee next weekend.<\/p>\n
Colts: At Houston next weekend to conclude their fifth straight season without a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Trevor Lawrence took the Jacksonville Jaguars back to the playoffs with his nearly flawless work…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":477118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,216086,77649,3188,6064,723,1318,6323,2862,9002,7310,8017,48478,9077,181121,216087,216088,1232,9341,28980,56018,204872,68768,62,9076,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-477117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ashton-dulin","10":"tag-cam-little","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-fl-state-wire","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-in-state-wire","16":"tag-indiana","17":"tag-indianapolis-colts","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","20":"tag-jonathan-taylor","21":"tag-liam-coen","22":"tag-local-news-for-apple","23":"tag-michael-pittman-jr","24":"tag-mo-alie-cox","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-nfl-football","27":"tag-parker-washington","28":"tag-philip-rivers","29":"tag-riley-leonard","30":"tag-sauce-gardner","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-trevor-lawrence","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-united-states-of-america","35":"tag-unitedstates","36":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","37":"tag-us","38":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}